Re: [Cbor] hildjj/cbor-map-entries: Explicit Map datatype for CBOR, in array format

This is semi-related and maybe something I’m a little confused about.

My understanding is that map keys/labels can be anything in CBOR including a map or array. This is nye impossible to write general map handling code for — code like lookup up by label and duplicate detection. They will not translate to other map data structures in other languages and serialization formats. Further, this seems like an exotic feature of little practical use (though I’m sure someone could do something very cool and clever with it for entertainment purposes).

What to do?

- Don’t standardize any IETF protocols that use exotic map keys?
- Add text to Kio’s proposal to restrict map keys to text string, byte string and integer?
- Write some warning against this somewhere?

LL

> On Feb 18, 2021, at 9:15 AM, Kio Smallwood <kio@mothers-arms.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> Thanks Joe!
> 
> I really appreciate the additional input since I wasn't aware of other languages with a similar datatype.
> 
> I've accepted your PR and updated my README and repo commentary to reflect the TBD status of the tag.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Kio
> 
> On 2021-02-18 15:19, Joe Hildebrand wrote:
> 
>> PR's sent for both your repo and mine.
>> 
>> — 
>> Joe Hildebrand
>> 
>>> On Feb 18, 2021, at 8:00 AM, Joe Hildebrand <hildjj@cursive.net <mailto:hildjj@cursive.net>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Kio, I'm happy to defer to your document, since you published first.  Sorry I didn't know about it.  If you are amenable, I'll replace my doc with a pointer to yours, and send you a PR with some suggestions for JS examples.
>>> 
>>> — 
>>> Joe Hildebrand
>>> 
>>>> On Feb 18, 2021, at 7:42 AM, Kio Smallwood <kio@mothers-arms.co.uk <mailto:kio@mothers-arms.co.uk>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> I'll modify it to remove the claim until it moves further.
>>>> 
>>>> I definitely want to avoid confusion!
>>>> 
>>>> Kio
>>>> 
>>>> On 18 February 2021 14:15:39 GMT, Carsten Bormann <cabo@tzi.org <mailto:cabo@tzi.org>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On 2021-02-18, at 14:57, Kio Smallwood <kio@mothers-arms.co.uk <mailto:kio@mothers-arms.co.uk>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Hi Dale,
>>>> 
>>>> I have made a similar proposal here: https://github.com/Sekenre/cbor-ordered-map-spec/blob/master/CBOR_Ordered_Map.md <https://github.com/Sekenre/cbor-ordered-map-spec/blob/master/CBOR_Ordered_Map.md>
>>>> 
>>>> ... and here we see the danger of just "claiming" a number...
>>>> 
>>>> (272 is Non-UTF-8 CESU-8 string).
>>>> 
>>>> I've tried to explain the rationale that it is adding a straightforward option for serializing a native data-type in Python 3 and other languages that support order-preserving key-value maps.
>>>> 
>>>> Yes.  And I agree with Dale that we should look a bit closer, but that is not a reason not to allocate a tag.
>>>> 
>>>> Grüße, Carsten
>>>> CBOR mailing list
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>>>> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/cbor <https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/cbor>
>>>> 
>>>> -- 
>>>> Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
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